Rejection Machine, the Last Recruitment Taboo?

By Michelle Boyde, UK Marketing and University Relations Manager

Michelle Boyde, UK Marketing and University Relations Manager

The way you handle rejected candidates affects your brand health. In today’s transparent world of social media and instant communication, one disgruntled rejected candidate can do serious damage to your brand.  As Universum Quarterly investigated the topic, it became obvious that many employers sorely lack an understanding of how important it is to take good care of their rejects as well.

The phrase rejection machine was coined by Charles Macleod, head of global resourcing and mobility at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). This is a very fitting phrase as PwC receives 20,000 to 25,000 applications for 1,000 jobs in the UK – they certainly do much more ‘rejecting’ than ‘recruiting’. This expression prompted Universum Quarterly to take a look at an aspect of the recruitment process many employers are reticent to discuss. 

Engagement Minimizes Bad Feelings from the Rejected 

“The vast majority (80 %) of candidates are rejected before they even have a face-to-face meeting,” Macleod said. “Any experienced recruiter knows that at least if they have met you, had a connection, they feel they have had a chance. You have a problem when they do not feel they have had a chance.” 

However, meeting 25,000 applicants when you only need 1,000 is a costly and time consuming business, Macleod suggested two tactics for when you cannot meet everyone: 

1. Influence individuals to deselect themselves.  

Communicate a concise employer brand and communicate transparently about the role. Filter questions can also be employed to help applicants deselect themselves further. An example for a classic for retail role being: “Are you prepared to work on weekends?”   

2. Increase engagement.  

An example is providing a link to try a psychometric test which they would usually take, allowing them to prepare for a future recruitment process. An excellent example is the Employability Guide, created by PwC. “This [employability] is the biggest issue for UK graduates,” Macleod explained. “Students want to know how to make the link between education and work, how to take what you have learnt and articulate this into an application or interview.”The guide is a constructive take-away. Students give their time to apply and even if an employer cannot ‘give’ them a job, they can give them career guidance. 

How Do Students Perceive Rejection From Employers? 

“Students do not mind rejection,” said Bérangère Pagès, executive director corporate relations at HEC Paris. “They know there is tough competition for the same employers.” 

“The biggest problem is when they do not get an answer,” explained Florence Da Costa, head of student career centre, EDHEC Business School in Lille, France. “Students accept a no, but they need to understand the negative response and require an explanation to understand the context.” 

“In France, employers do not reply all the time,” Da Costa continued. “The employers who are best at rejecting candidates tend to have the best branding on campus. Different sectors conduct this part of the recruitment process better than others. In France, the banks do it best – they have a well-structured process.” 

The crucial element is the delivery and the content of the message. 

Create a Quality Response 

“We are all customers, students like it when they know where in the application process they are and they like to get responses quickly,” Da Costa explained. However, automated replies are a no-no. “It is not nice when students get an email with no comments,” Pagès warned. “Emails need to be written for the specific student.” Both Pagès and Da Costa agree that a phone call is the best way – it does not need to be long, but it does allow for a dialogue that written communication does not. 

Da Costa explained that in France, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) are a very good example of a company that have a recruitment process that incorporates quality responses: “P&G are very well organized, students complete the application form and then they are contacted within one or two weeks. If they are successful, they are asked to come in for a day session. At the end of the day the candidate gets an answer. P&G calls this ‘Challenging Recruitment’ – it is great because students get answers quickly, but they also get dialogue,” Da Costa concluded. 

Rejection Is a Bitter Pill 

Students understand there is strong competition for positions at top employers; but it is successful employers who understand how to turn a negative response into a positive learning curve. 

“At HEC, we really try to make students understand that being rejected is positive – it helps students, it’s not a failure, but an opportunity to improve – we really emphasis this,” Pagès concluded. 

Engaging students and ensuring they have the opportunity to take something from the process is important. Equally, ensuring communication is personal and timely is also critical. If the interaction is wrong, it could impact future hiring at a lateral level and, as recruiters are all too acutely aware – students today share their experience at the click of a button. 

Is Rejection Taboo? 

Despite the fact that employers do decline large numbers of candidates, discussing how this is done seems somewhat of a taboo. This article hoped to share best practices in this area; however, encouraging employers to discuss this in a public forum has proved difficult. If this is a topic you are interested in or your think your team has something to share in a follow-up story, please contact me on: michelle.boyde@universumeurope.com. 

Download the UQ1_2010_Rejection Machine release here.

Posted by Michelle Boyde on June 28, 2010. Filed under Human Resources, Recruiting, Thought Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry